BtN: Episode 02 Transcript 10/02/15 Coming up: What does politics have to do with jelly beans? A clue - we might need a poll to find out your opinion on it. We'll also look at the future of radio to decide if it actually has one. TIM CAHILL: And I'll tell you all about our Asian cup win and how it might help Aussie kids succeed in soccer. Hi I'm Nathan and they're just some of the stories you'll see a bit later on BtN but first today. The Wire Tony Abbott is still Australia's Prime Minister but only just. Here's a rundown of that and the other big stories we've seen recently in the wire. The issues all started when a Liberal politician decided to call for a vote on the leadership of the Coalition and therefore the whole country. Tony Abbott has been pretty unpopular in the polls lately. But he still says he's the right person to run the country. The vote went ahead on Monday. But Tony Abbott held on to his job 61 - 39. He says he's learned from his mistakes. And the leadership's now settled. But some say the issue could come up again. A study has found fewer schools are providing kids with laptops and tablets. The survey found that last year only 44 percent of schools provided kids with laptops and tablets. Whereas in 2013 it was more like 60 percent. Some people are worried that families might struggle to afford the devices that kids need to learn. The government's announced that one of its new Broadband satellites will be named and decorated by kids! It's holding a competition and the winner will have his or her artwork go up into orbit on the satellite when it's launched next year. The NBN company also announced that it's finished building the dishes which will pick up satellite signals and provide faster internet to people in the bush. 1 And America's biggest music awards have been handed out in LA. Pharrell got a few more reasons to be happy, picking up best video and best solo pop performance. Sam Smith won the night picking up best new artist, best pop vocal album, record of the year and song of the year. While Beyonce picked up an award for best R&B performance. Opinion Polls Reporter: Carl Smith INTRO: Now as you heard there Prime Minister Tony Abbott spent this week fighting for his job. The reason is because some people on his side think he's just too unpopular with voters. But how do politicians know if a leader is popular or not, if they haven't just been through an election? The answer is opinion polls. Here's Carl to explain them. Popularity is a funny thing. Sometimes you're hot, and sometimes you're not. It can happen in the schoolyard, just like it can happen to the Prime Minister of Australia. At the moment, less than a third of Aussies say they're happy with our PM Tony Abbott. But hang on a second, wasn't Tony Abbott voted in as the most popular leader at the last election? Well, yes he was! But a lot has changed since then. There was a really tough budget, trouble in the senate, and a few broken election promises. The PM's also been criticised for making decisions without asking others what they think. Tony Abbott: 'it's a captain's pick' You might've guessed that these things would make the PM less popular. But how do we actually know? Well, that's where opinion polls come in. Opinion polls are conducted by big companies, most often for political parties or the media. They ask a bunch of people across the country, across a state, or even across a city, a few simple questions. They might ask about politicians, or other things like the environment, the economy or jobs. Now, you couldn't possibly ask everyone what they're thinking, it would take decades to get a result. So opinion polls just ask a small sample of the population. By finding out what those few people are saying, you can sometimes get a good idea of what the rest of the country thinks too. But if you aren't careful you might accidentally pick a bunch of people who all have really similar views. So you need a big group of people from lots of different backgrounds to get a really accurate result. You can think of opinion polls as being like taking a hand full of jelly beans from a jar, and then using the ones in your hand to figure out what colour the rest are. So they must all be orange and yellow or maybe not. That's why you need a 2 big hand full to figure out what's really going on. Even so, it can be tricky getting the mix perfect. That's why every opinion poll has a 'margin of error'. That number basically just gives you an idea of how much higher or lower the result might be, if you could ask absolutely everyone. Back in the school yard, knowing you're unpopular isn't great. But you can still learn something from that. While opinion polls do say how unpopular someone is, they can also help them figure out what's going wrong and what they can change which is incredibly important if the PM still wants to be around to win the biggest and most important opinion poll, the next federal election. Press Freedom Reporter: Matt Holbrook INTRO: Okay, now we love it when there's some good news around and this week we got to see a very happy end to a bad story. Peter Greste, an Australian journalist was released from an Egyptian jail after being imprisoned for reporting something the Government there didn't like. But while it's good news that he's now free it did make us wonder how many other journalists might be facing the same thing around the world? Here's Matt with the answer. We all have a right to know what's going on in the world, even if we don't always care about every story. OK, maybe not the best example. But the news can tell us really vital info, and that's why the news is important. But to get to the bottom of those really important stories, sometimes those doing the reporting have to put themselves in dangerous situations or places. That's what happened to this guy, Peter Greste. You might remember hearing about him. He's an Aussie journalist who was working in Cairo, Egypt, bringing the world news about the problems there. But he and two other journalists were charged with supporting terrorists and spreading false news. Most people agree that wasn't true, and that he was locked up, because the government didn't like what he was reporting. There were huge protests, and thousands of people campaigned to get him released. And after spending more than a year behind bars he's now finally been freed. PETER GRESTE: I didn't believe it was happening until I got my backside on the seat of a plane with my brother Mike, and we knew then, at least that for me, it was over. But his colleagues are still locked up. And they're not the only ones. Around the world, there are around 220 journalists in prison. The highest numbers are in China 3 and Iran. That number's slowly risen over the years, but jail is not the only risk out there for journalists. 60 were killed last year alone. It sounds crazy someone can be killed or imprisoned for reporting the news, so why does it happen? Well, journalists often have to tell stories that some people would prefer didn't get told. Things that might make governments, organisations, or important people look really bad. And it could also force some big changes. That's why a "free press" is important. It means being able to report the news without worrying about government interference. But it doesn't always happen. In China, most news outlets are run by the government, and those that aren't have strict rules about what they can and can't report. And in some conflict areas, both sides can be pretty touchy about how things are reported, and there's a risk of getting caught up in something you're not actually a part of. But these journalists believe they have an important job to do, even if it's not an easy one. And that's partly why so many people have come out in support of Peter Greste. For now, Peter's excited about being home, and having his freedom back. PETER GRESTE: I'm watching a few sunsets. I haven't seen those at all for a long time. Watching the stars, feeling the sand under my toes. And he says he won't stop until his work mates are free, too. Presenter: Okay next up we've got a story about dairy. But first a quiz about one of the processes it has to go through before you can drink it. Quiz 1 Many dairy products are heated to high temperatures to kill any bacteria. What is this process called? Is it - Sterilisation Pasteurisation Or Heat Treatment Answer: Pasteurisation Dairy Diet 4 Reporter: Natasha Thiele INTRO: Now, most of us have some dairy at breakfast, whether on our cereal, in a glass, or in a tub as yoghurt.